Crime | Arrogant Brewing

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Notes / Commercial Description:
A habitual offender returns
This beer is the result of what many beer enthusiasts would consider a most egregious crime―sequestering Arrogant Bastard Ale, Double Bastard Ale and OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale in Kentucky bourbon barrels, then blending them together with chile peppers. This new version of Crime is still very hoppy in spite of the barrel aging, with lots of oak and malt. The long finish reveals layers of oak, vanilla, bourbon, and malt that combine to produce complex caramel flavors, with peppers adding pleasant tamarind, subtle tropical fruit flavors and a milder heat than in previous concoctions.

Prominent fruity character is overtaken by the assertive chili fieriness, but is complemented by puckering hoppiness, caramel malt backbone of the Lucky Bastard ale, and oak notes from the admittedly short (2 months) barrel aging. The spicy level is a notch higher than Habanero Sculpin, similar to but not quite as strong as eating a raw green jalapeno.

On the high end of the medium body spectrum, with very low carbonation (maybe due to barrel aging). Like after a bite of a jalapeno, a moderate spiciness lingers for a while but is not strong enough to be unbearable for the seasoned chilihead.

While it’s hard to drink more than a sip at a time, it is a pleasurable experience for the chiliheads among the hopheads.

More User Reviews:

1.24/5 rDev -58%look: 5 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1

This is indeed a crime.

A: I always give beers a 5 for appearance because I don't think the appearance of a beer should detract from its rating, If I could have given this beer 1s across the board, I would.
This one had a nice burnt amber color.

S: god awful. Smells like plastic honestly.

T: Complete mess. No pleasant taste what so ever, just hot peppers.

M: Pain? Just pain.

O: Its a shame that Stone would make such garbage, its even a bigger shame they'd make it so expensive. This bottle was $18 I think? More than $1 per ounce for a drain pour? Such a waste of money and barrels.

Now THERE'S the chili beer I've been looking for! Holy hell this is hot. I am a heat lover through and through and have wanted to experience the paradoxical situation of drinking something that's intensely spicy and then reaching for the same glass the cleanse that heat from my palate. This does exactly that. There are plenty of flavors here though. If you can make it through the heat you can definitely taste a "woody" ale. I'm guessing it's from the Oaked arrogant bastard but there's a charred and peppery green bell pepper flavor that I'm getting too that's mixing in with it nicely from the variety of chilis in this. I can't stop drinking it. Heat isn't everyone's bag, but it's a very different beast to try and enjoy all of the flavors in here while still experiencing (and possibly enjoying depending on your tastes) the burn. With a sweaty brow, nostrils running, and a mouth in burning beverage heaven, I absolutely recommend this to those looking for over the top spicy brews. Damn, I should've bought more!

The self-deprecating side of Stone Brewing says that they ruined a perfectly good batch of Lukcy Basartd. But what they did was to take it from an aggressively hopped, barreled and boozed elixir that's caught between drinkalble and savory and into something that's aggressively peppered but smoothened for a much more food-friendly approach.

Rust, honey, apricot and camel explain the bulk of the hazy hues that bounce from the glass. A partial-creamy froth. And as the obvious smoked pepper twinge of heat billow into the nose, so does a rounded caramel, toast, cashew and oak fragrance. Its taste is remarkably sweet with caramel, toffee, biscuit, honey and fruit jam... at least to start.

And the ale simply blossoms across the palate. As its malty-sweet, poundcake texture softens, the beer's sharp citrusy character of grapefruit and orange peel, pith and rind rises for a piquant flavor that accessorizes the taste of apricot and mango marmalade. Oak, peppercorn, vanilla, coffee and soft buttery nuttiness keep coming until the warm and fruity taste of toasted peppers offer their pulp, flesh and spicy, seedy simmering heat.

Malty-sweet, bitter-sweet and remarkably balanced, the beer finishes with cream and oak tannin while the green taste of garden peppers seem green-bean-like. Torn pinecone and a dash of spicy hot sauce round out the aftertaste while the ale stays surprisingly even-keel in the deepest of tastes.

Poured into a chalice a nice slightly cloudy golden amber color, very nice carbonation, with a nice one-finger creamy off-white head, which leaves some small islands and some nice sticky lacing. The nose is hoppy, with some nice malt notes, some pepper/spice notes, some dark fruits. The taste is pretty good, kinda reminds me of a barleywine with hot peppers, hoppy, slight malt note, dark fruits, very spicy/hot for a beer. Medium body, with a slightly dry/bitter/hot finish. Overall, a very tasty/nice brew, surprised the shit out of me how hot/spicy this brew is, definitely a few notches above any spicy/chile brew I've ever had to date.

A: Pours a murky reddish brown color with 2 fingers of head that slowly fades down to a decent cap that leaves some good lacing

S: Very malty up front with some smooth oaky, vanilla, and bourbon notes as well as some restrained peppery heat. Definitely mostly Lukcy Bastard with a little heat

T: The peppery heat comes alive to start things off, but again, it's not nearly as overwhelming as some of the reviews claim. Some nice maltiness cuts the initial heat, followed by some sweetness from the bourbon barrels. Vanilla and oak are nice and subtle, but compliment the heat and base in a unique and interesting way. Any alcohol is completely covered by the malt and capsaicin heat. Finishes with lingering heat and some earthy hop presence

M: Medium-full bodied with moderate carbonation

O: Despite the mostly shitty reviews due to people handling heat in a very poor way, this one was a very solid brew with the BBA Lukcy Bastard being complimented by the peppers in a unique way that you simply won't find in very many places, if at all aside from G. Koch & Co. a la Stone. Obviously, if you don't like heat, you won't like this beer. At all. If you like spicy things, this one might be for you as long as the $17 price tag doesn't defer you

Small 500ML bottle picked up despite the warning from my friendly local beer pusher. I looked around for Punishment & couldn't find it. May have been a blessing in diguise. Split with my wife.

The pour is very dark orange with a few droplets of sacrificial blood to darken it up. Tons & tons of floaties. Then I lick the 1/192 ounce of dribble rolling down the glass....eehhh. The nose is dirty chiles. Chiles. Chiles. I think the label said something about them.

Crime literally made me grab my throat after one sip - holy horrific fuck. Not only is there too much heat for the surface of the sun, it tastes like rancid sewage. What happened to the good base beer? Or the bourbon? It's like the dirt the chiles were grown in was dumped wholesale into the kettle. I consider just pouring it into the drain. Then I think about the cost of a plumber & think I'll toss it outside. Then I think about my poor grass. WTF do I do with this? I need some kind of toxic container.

S: Not nearly as much nose as I would have expected, in retrospect. Slightly sweet, strangely mingled with the hint of peppers, which gave it an almost plasticly off-note. Disjointed; had I smelled this anywhere else, I immediately would have wondered if something was off.

T: Good lord, why the peppers? Why? Lucky Bastard in barrels itself would probably have been great, would have serve to mellow or round out perhaps some of that sweetness that is it's hallmark. Instead, that potential was wrecked absolutely by the inclusion of pepper heat to the point of throwing the entire beer off the rails. The entire taste was out of sync, the heat of the peppers fighting the sweetness of the base LB. At the same time the barrel character was utterly at odds with the peppers.

M: Somehow at the same time thin and coating. I could not get the awful pepper burn out of my mouth for the longest time.

D: Between my girlfriend and I, neither of us could manage a few sips, to just sample it. I actually had to taste it more than once, thinking that it really couldn't be as bad as I was thinking at was. I think we made it through maybe 1 1/2 ounces of a 4oz pour.

By far the worst beer I have ever had from Stone. I would never, ever order this beer again.